Rotary love: Three couples meet through Victoria club

Travis and Cally Fromme have been married for more than 10 years and met through the Victoria Rotary Club, one of three couples who met and married through the organization.

ABOUT ROTARY

The Victoria Rotary Club is the oldest of Victoria's three Rotary Clubs. It was established in 1919 and meets at noon each Tuesday at the Victoria Country Club.

For more information, go to www.victoriarotary.us.

Forget the Love Boat. Cupid is apparently residing within the Victoria Rotary Club these days.

When a fellow Rotarian caught the eye of Victoria Police Chief Bruce Ure, he used his handy Victoria Rotary Club manual to look up her e-mail address to ask her to go out dancing.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Ure and Valarie Bullock, the senior vice president at First Victoria Insurance Agency, are getting married next month.

The two lovebirds are the third couple thus far who have made a love connection through the organization.

Victoria Fire Chief Vance Riley also got to know his now-wife, Ann, through the Rotary. The two were married in 2008.

For Cally and Travis Fromme, not only did they meet through the club and later marry in 1999, but they also had the first Rotary baby in 2001.

"The first time I remember really hanging out with him was when the Rotary had a golf tournament, and I rode around in a golf cart with him," Cally Fromme said. "Later, Travis told me he made sure that I was the one to ride around with him. After that, I had casually asked a mutual Rotarian about whether he was married or divorced. The very next day Travis asked me out."

So is it just something they serve in the water at the Rotary Club meetings?

Not quite, Fromme said.

"The Rotary Club is special because it's composed of like-minded people. We have a four-way test, in which all the things we think, say or do we ask if it's the truth, is it fair, will it build goodwill and will it be beneficial to all concerned? It may sound hokey, but I believe in it and the other members do too," she said. "We all have the same moral values and associating with people who share so many core values already starts your marriage off on the right foot."

Riley agreed, saying that the club's motto of "service above self" helped in making the love connections.

"I think it's the common value of that ideal, service above self, that brings people together," he added. "The people in the club have similar values and a desire to help others."

As for the chance that there might be more love connections made in the future, Bullock said it's always a possibility.

"I haven't heard of any other matches yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was another one," she said.